Hey readers, welcome to Chapter 8 Of Nikki's Story. Hope your enjoying it. I just want to say thanks to the readers who has been following this story and to all the CC creators at TSR. Without you, stories wouldn't be as much fun as they are. So thanks :-)

Anyway on with the story.

Hey readers, welcome to Chapter 8 Of Nikki's Story. Hope your enjoying it. I just want to say thanks to the readers who has been following this story and to all the CC creators at TSR. Without you, stories wouldn't be as much fun as they are. So thanks :-)

Anyway on with the story. It’s been a couple of days since Gabe had walked away and still no word form him. Still, there was work to be done. Not wanting to be stuck in at the house with her uncle and mind reading brother, she decided to head to the cemetery hoping to get some clues on he ware bouts of Eli. Hopefully these ghosts were the friendly kind. Not to mention she had to warn Gabe about the demon. After walking away, they never got a chance to explain that to him. At this point she didn’t really care. All she wanted to do was make sure he was alright. But he had walked away leaving her wondering where he was, what he was thinking. She couldn’t help but to think that he had basically left her just like she left him six years ago.

Taking the last turn, she was in front of the cemetery. She knew he hadn’t left town, though. That much she was sure of. It was almost like she could sense him. But that couldn’t be. He was human after all. Even with her gifts, she wouldn’t be able to do that. Parking the car she told herself to shake it off, she had a job to do. Stepping out, she closed the car door and walked through the gates of the cemetery. Already she could feel the ghosts walking around. Hopefully she could get some answers from them. Walking around the graves, she made herself known by opening her mind to the beings around her. Spotting a ghost, she walked up to it. “Hey. I need to ask you some questions.”

When it turned around it looked at her, with sad eyes. Eyes that she had seen when they were full of life.

NO! Her head screamed the word in denial, but her eyes showed her the realiy. As tears started to run down her checks all she could do was shake her head in denial.

The ghost in turn just looked at her with those same sad eyes. “Don’t cry Nikki.” “Eli,” she managed to weep out.

Whipping away her tears he smiled a sad smile. “Did you find the disk?”

She nodded her head.

“Good. Is Eric and Harrison with you.”

Again she nodded, wiping away her tears, but they wouldn’t stop falling. “Good. I don’t have much time. I’ve only been able to hang on, hoping you guys would come.”

“We would have been here sooner, but Jared…”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, “Just listen. I’ve been talking to the ghosts around this place since I’ve been here. Four ghosts, all women. They are the victims that have disappeared…do you know what I am taking about?” When she nodded her head, he continued, “They are not here anymore, they’ve moved on, but they told me what happened…that the demon—“ “Who’s the demon, Eli? What does he want?” she interrupted him.

“His name is Deimus. He’s a very powerful, dangerous demon. He wants a map to the Temple of Kepi. Gabriel Whitfield knows were it is. He’s here in town. You need to find him and protect it.”

At the meaning of her words, what she had hoped to not be the truth, finally hit her and new tears formed in her eyes.

“You know him.” Eli said not understanding her reaction. “Have you seen him?” “Yes,” she said on a broken sob. “It’s Gabe.”

“Gabe? The Gabe?” he asked in surprise. When she nodded he tried to comfort her by putting his hand on hers. But it went right through her making her tears fall faster. “I’m so sorry. He has something that they want and they will do anything to get to him.”

Questions were running through her mind, but the most important on was the one she asked, “Who did this to you Eli? Where is he? Where’s the rest of your team?” “Deimus isn’t here. He’s in Egypt, trying to find clues on the whereabouts of Kepi. You need to stop him, before he gets his hands on her. Go now. Protect Gabriel. I must go now.” He said with a sad smile.

“Please don’t go,” She whispered as she tried to hug him, but she went right through him and when she turned around he was gone. Fresh new tears rolled down her cheeks as a faint whisper said “Bye Nikki, be safe.” She stood there for a long time, hoping he would come back. When she saw that he wouldn’t, she turned around and wiped the tears away. She had one thing in mind. She needed a drink badly, maybe even two. So she got in the car and headed to the nearest bar.
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Gabe found her at the local pub drinking. She looked so sad and depressed, that Gabe had the urge to go to her and pull her into his arms. Instead he sat down next to her and ordered a beer. “Hey. You ok?” When she looked up and saw who it was she looking back at her cup and gulped the condiments down, not caring about the burning at the back of her throat, and ordered another one.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
“Are you ok?” he asked ignoring her question.

Taking another swallow she replied, “Just peachy.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No, what I want is for you to stop talking.” “I was just trying to help.”

“Well, if you wanna help….” She said looking at him angrily, but she didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she gulped down her drink. “Do you believe what we told you?...Yeah that’s what I thought.” She said when he looked away and didn’t answer. Getting up, she left money to pay her bill, and headed outside. Once outside, she took in a deep breath. That’s what she needed, fresh air. She heard the door of the bar open, and the next think she knew Gabe was in front of her.

“Can you stop walking away all the time.”

“Last time I checked you were the one doing the walking.”

“What did you expect me too say? It was a lot to take in.” Instead of responding to him, she said nothing. She knew it was. It was too much for her when she heard it for the first time herself. But she hadn’t walked away. She had dealt with it. She had dealt with a lot of things since then, especially the last few days. But still, if he didn’t believe her then there was no future for them… Did she want a future with him? All she knew was that if he left, she wouldn’t be able to deal with the heartache the second time around. Just thinking about it made her eyes watery. Not wanting him to see, she looked down at her hands. “Just please stop walking away so we could talk about this. It’s just me and you this time. Ok?” he said interrupting her thoughts.

Staring down at her hands she nodded, causing a tear to fall down her check, but he didn’t notice for he said, “I think…I……for some reason, I do believe what you said. After everything that happened…look I—”

At the moment he noticed the tears now falling freely. He held her chin between his index finger and thumb and brought her face up. “Nikki, what is it?” He believed what he was told. Thank god. For the first time in years, she allowed herself to cry. To really cried with all the deep emotions she had never let out. She cried for her parents; cried for Eli, cried for the life she missed. And when he wrapped his arms around her, she cried for the love they had and lost. It felt so good having her in his arms again. He held her tight, rubbing her back, but he never tried to halt her tears. Through sobs, she told him about finding Eli in the cemetery. It’s true that he’d been spectacle on what Harrison told him a couple of days ago. If he was going to be honest, he wasn’t really sure he wanted to deal with it if what he said was true. But seeing Nikki like this, he wasn’t sure he could stay away either. When she had cried herself out, she quieted down. She lifted her face from his shoulder and looked up with a sniff. Framing his face in her hands, she said, “Thanks.”

Wiping the last tear falling, he asked, “Better?” In return he received a smile from her. Gabe smiled back and gave her a kiss on the cheek, “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

Nodding, she walked with him to his car and got in the passenger seat. Getting into the driver seat, Gabe made his way back to the place to the one place he felt safe.
********************************************************************* A half hour later, they sat in the living room. She had seemed to recover from the episode outside of the bar. She seemed more determined, stronger, and happier. As she explained what happened at the cemetery with Eli, Gabe listened still a little shocked at what they did, what she did. And when she told them about the demon Deimus and that he was the one Deimus was after he knew he had to tell them. He wasn’t sure how Nikki would take it, but from the conversation around him, he had no choice of leaving anything out. “But why him?” Eric asked looking at Gabe. “Why not some other archeologist? Why all this trouble for one archeologist when there are millions in the world?”

Taking a deep breath he looked at the group, “About a year ago,” he started, “I was in Egypt. My team and I uncovered a tomb there that seemed to belong to Queen Kepi.” Memories came to the surface of his mind as he replayed what happened that night, “There was a raid that night. Men came into our camp and destroyed and took everything. There was nothing left.” Remembering the article she read a few days back she said, “You were part of that team? I read online about a that. But they said that everyone went missing.” Nikki wanted to go to him, to comfort him but he seemed determine to tell them.

Closing his eyes, he let that guilt wash over him. Guilt because he was the leader of his team, he was suppose to keep them safe and he failed them. Opening his eyes, he continued, “No, everyone survived, but because of what happened the police decided it was best to say that they didn't, for our safety. They believed that they would come back.”

“Oh Gabe,” Nikki said going to sit next to him. She took his hand in his. Looking down at the contact he continued, “Everyone was hurt, but I got the worst of it since I was just coming out of the tomb. Rocks fell on me. The doctors say it was a miracle I could even walk. I was in the hospital for three months. It was longest three months of my life. The news of what had happened went on for awhile, but by the time I got out, it had died down. The only thing they didn’t take that night was an old map and scroll that I had mailed to one of my colleagues. I’m thinking that’s what Deimus is looking for.”

“Oh my god, Gabe why didn’t you say anything,” Nikki asked giving him a comforting hug. “It wasn’t important at the time,” he said letting her comfort him. He looked back at the two faces still looking at him, “Two months ago, back in Cali, I was having dinner at the local diner when a guy approached me. He seemed normal at first, but he kept asking me all these questions about Egypt and if the people that attacked took every single thing. It was weird because how would he know who I was and that I had been there.”

He paused, remembering the guy with dark hair and weird looking eyes. “I avoided his questions as best as I could, playing dumb like I didn’t know what he was talking about. But I knew it wasn’t coincidence. So I ran. That night I packed up a few things, and drove east and ended up here. I thought I had lost them and started to think I had been paranoid until I ran into that mummy thing…and Nikki.” He said squeezing her hand gently. When she squeezed back he knew that the barriers had been dropped and forgiven between the both of them.
“So what happened to the map?” Harrison asked getting to the point.

“After I got out of the hospital I retrieved the map. I found it and I wanted to find where the map lead to. But after that night at the dinner, I shipped it to a colleague of mine in London. I sent it when I stopped in Texas. Hopefully whoever is after me won’t be able to trace it.”

Everyone became quite, digesting what Gabe just told them. After several minutes, Gabe looked at Harrison, “So what now?” he asked. “We go after this Deimus jerk and put a stop to this once and for all.” Eric said, determination in his eyes.

“Whoa, let’s back up.” Harrison said getting up. “First we have to let Jared know and see what he wants to do. Maybe we could get that map from London and find what’s hidden before Deimus does. You know we can’t just go across the ocean and hunt down this guy we don’t know anything about. And second it’s late. Gabe you can stay here where you’ll be safe. We have an extra room so feel free to stay there. We should get some rest. I’m going to call Jared.”
When he left, Eric got up and stormed off, obviously not pleased with Harrison’s decision to get Jared involved. Especially the way his thoughts were going. Nikki smiled and shook her head. With both of them gone, Gabe and Nikki were left alone.

“You shouldn’t feel guilty about what happen to your team. It wasn’t your fault.” Nikki said when they were left alone.

He just shrugged his shoulders. From that gesture alone, it was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it. After a few seconds she got up from the couch. “Want anything to drink?” She headed towards the kitchen and started to make coffee. Her head was starting to hurt, probably from the drinks.

“Nah…I guess those drinks weren’t such a good idea, huh?” He teased, following her.

“Shut up.” She teased. Getting a mug, she poured some coffee into it. Sitting at the table he watched her. “So…this mind reading thing you share with your brother. How does that work. Are you always in tune with him?”

Sitting across from him, she took a sip of coffee. It was nice that she could finally talk to him without being vague about what she did and who she was.

“Yes and no,” she answered him. “We could read each other thoughts and feel what the other feels. But we stay out of each others head unless it’s important…well I stay out of his. He still hasn’t learned any boundaries in regards to my thoughts.” She added with a frown. “So, if he wanted to, he could hear what we’re talking about.”

“Not if I blocked him.”

“You could do that?” he asked surprised.

“It's hard the closer we are to each other, but it’s convenient when we go and hunt some ‘monsters.’ That way they don’t know what we’re planning, since the supernatural could communicate with us.” she explained, making air quotes with her hands when she said monsters. “Oh,” He said nodding slowly. He remembered the last time he was here and how he had heard a faint voice in his head pleading with him to believe. “Can you send telepathic messages to humans?”

“Um, no. I tried doing it with Harrison, but it never works. Why?”

“Just wondering.” Standing there quietly, she studied him over the rim of her coffee cup. This was the first time they had an actual conversation; a weird conversation for any normal person, but a conversation none-the-less. Putting her cup down, she took a deep breath. It was now or never, she thought taking his hands in hers.

“Gabe,” she waited until he looked at her, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” he asked confused.

“For leaving without saying a word. I was a coward. I told myself there was no time to call you, to talk to you. But the truth is… I was running scared.” She said uncomfortably. “Why?”

“We were told we would be in danger since our parents, protectors, were gone. I could sense Eric wanted to go badly so I didn’t put up a fight. So I went. If I had called you to tell you, I knew that you would try to change my mind and most likely succeed at it. If I was in danger, I couldn’t put you in danger either. What if something happened to you, I don’t know if I could have lived with myself. Still don’t,” she said honestly, “So I ran and let you go, hoping I wouldn’t regret it.”

“Did you regret it?” She answered truthfully, “I thought I didn’t because I kept telling myself it was for the best. But these last few days…” taking a big breath she let it out slowly and looked him straight in the eye, “I’ve regretted it every time I thought about it, which was all the time. Regretted that I didn’t fight for what I wanted. For you, for my own life that didn’t revolve around this,” she said looking around her. “All I wanted was a normal life but instead I get anything but.” He was quite for several minutes, staring at his hands entwined in hers. “I always thought you would come back.” He said when he finally spoke, “When weeks passed without a word, I did look for you. But it was like you never existed. No records, no phone numbers. After awhile, with dead ends no matter how I tried, I just gave up.” He said with a sad smile. “I figured if you didn’t want to be found, then I would let you go.” She squeezed his hands and let go. Walking to the sink, she washed her mug. She could still see that her actions had hurt him. She knew that he would be mad at her, but she never expected him to search for her. “We had to disappear. It’s part of the rules. That way, no one is able to track us and know where we’re going. During jobs, we usually use aliases, so our identities are safe for when we go out into the real world again.” “So you can leave whenever you want?” he asked.

“Yes and no. Like any other job, we need to give notice, but we need a really really good reason for it. Most of the time it’s because we’re not able to do our jobs, emotionally or physically, almost like the army, but not exactly.” She turned and looked at him. “But for me and Eric is different because of who we are.”

“Because of your ancestors.” From what he had seen so far, it was a dangerous and an emotional job. “Do you like what you do?” Avoiding his eyes, she responded, “Sure, what’s not to like.” and walked past him.

Before she could get any farther, he grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. “You know, you might have experience in fighting the supernatural, but you’re not a very good liar.”

When his eyes met hers she felt all the longings come back. “At times it could be stressful, but it helps that I’m making a difference in people’s lives. Protecting them, taking their fear away. You know?”

He nodded his head, watching her as she spoke, “Are you happy?”

“At times,” she said truthfully with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

He slid his arms around her and she let him, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ve thought about you all these years. Wondering if you were thinking of me too.” He said against her ear. As she stood very still, he combed his figures through her hair, then down to where the tips brushed her back. “God you haven’t changed.”

“I’ve changed, Gabe.” But her voice was breathless. “So have you.”

“Some things don’t,” he reminded her and gave in to the need.
Kissing her again he knew that everything that had happened between them was forgotten and forgiven. In his arms, she was soft and smelled of spring time, even in this dark fall night. He couldn’t explain, even to himself, that every other woman he’d held had been nothing but a shadow of his memory for her. Now she was real, wrapped in his arms and giving him everything he’d forgotten he could have. How could he have known his life had such a void? He’d tried to close the door on the part of his life that included Nikki. But finding her again, he knew that he couldn’t let her go. When his mouth touched hers, Nikki knew that she’d come home. Everything she remembered, everything she thought she’d lost, was hers again. She’d tried to tell herself it was only youthful passion, girlish dreams, but she’d known it was a lie. There’d been no other men, only memories of one, and wishes, and half-forgotten dreams.

She was holding no memory now but Gabe, as real and urgent as he’d always been. Everything about him was so familiar, the taste of his lips on hers, the feel of his hair as her fingers raked through it, the scent of man that he’d always carried even when he was younger. He murmured her name and drew her closer, as if the years were trying to separate them again. She wrapped her arms tighter around him, as willing, as eager, and as in love as she’d been the last time he’d held her. “Stay with me tonight.” She said against his mouth.

Pulling back, he looked deep into her eyes, “Are you sure?” When she nodded her answer, he put his lips against hers again. Picking her up, he made his way to her room and laid her gently on the bed. Joining her in bed, he held her and kissed her with all the passion he had. She in turn, returned that passion.
When the heat had died down, Gabe held her. He wanted to give her a life outside of Orion. He’d seen the sadness in her eyes when she was talking about it, but he knew that she wouldn’t leave her brother. So, no matter what happened, he wouldn’t allow her to disappear on him again. He would help her find Deimus and destroy him however he could. With his mind made up, he pulled the covers over them and fell asleep with his arms around her, protectively.